


Write to Memory

by monsterkiss



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game), Nier Gestalt | Nier
Genre: F/F, Gen, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsterkiss/pseuds/monsterkiss
Summary: “For a while now, I have become aware of someone. A girl.”White relaxed a little. So, it was one ofthoseerrors. “Your Operator?” That particular glitch was fairly common, but seemed to be harmless.The 2B frowned. “No, Commander. She is… not an android.”
Relationships: 2B/The Commander (NieR: Automata)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	Write to Memory

“Commander. I need to speak with you.”

There was an eerie silence for a moment as numerous Operators paused in their work to turn towards the sound, then an equally sudden eruption of typing as they remembered themselves.

Commander White looked at the android before her. A 2B model, pristine and unmarked but in the Bunker that meant nothing; she could be the veteran of many months of uninterrupted service. Typical of her kind her expression was cold and blank, designed to give her opponents nothing to work with, nor betray any fear to her fellow soldiers.

Over the years, White had learnt to see the minute tics in that facade, and she could tell that this unit was very, very nervous.

“Of course. Come with me.”

She lead her away from the prying ears of the always-observing Operator classes and the steely gazes of the various combat units passing through. The 2B followed as she took the lift and keyed in her quarters with a flick of her wrist.

As the lift doors sealed shut, she said, “I apologise, Commander-”

“It’s alright. I know you wouldn’t be approaching me like this if it wasn’t important.” She smiled gently to underline her words.

The 2B nodded, and they continued the journey in silence until the lift finally came to a halt.

White strode forward as the doors opened onto her quarters. “Come in. Please, make yourself at home.”

When there was no sound she turned to see the 2B hovering at the threshold, almost mid-step.

“Is something wrong?”

“Ah, no, Commander.” She entered, stepping carefully around the wires and whirring boxes and discarded touch-screens that were arranged wherever there had been space to leave them.

She sighed. It was a reaction she had seen before. “I apologise. I was provided these quarters so that I would have a place to take a break from my work, but as the only White unit, I feel I must always be on-duty.” Finding that all the chairs were occupied with more important matters, she indicated the bed. “Please, sit down.”

The 2B nodded and sat down stiffly, hands folded in her lap.

“Now. What is troubling you?”

For a moment the unit continued to sit in silence, though from inside there was the hum of processes ramping up. When she did speak it was with less of the iron-clad certainty that her model was renowned for.

“I… I worry that I am not fulfilling my mission, Commander.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Do you complete the assignments given to you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you complete them to the standard required?”

“Yes.”

“Do you support your fellow units in YoRHa and the Army of Humanity on Earth?”

“Yes.”

“Do you fight for mankind?”

“Yes.”

“Then you are fulfilling your mission according to all parameters. Is it possible that your internal validation systems have become corrupted?”

“My maintenance scans have all been within tolerance levels.”

White frowned, tapping a finger on her crowded desk. “Then this feeling is the result of a combination of your experiences as processed through your personality software and logic services. Can you describe it?”

The 2B nodded, her perfectly-arranged hair barely moving.

“For a while now, I have become aware of someone. A girl.”

White relaxed a little. So, it was one of _those_ errors. “Your Operator?” That particular glitch was fairly common, but seemed to be harmless.

The 2B frowned. “No, Commander. She is… not an android.”

White’s hand froze. “Elaborate. Begin from the earliest entry into your long-term memory.”

She nodded and sighed, cooling her processors. “Two months, eight days, twenty-two hours, six minutes, eighteen seconds. I was on a routine patrol in Resistance territory eleven.”

“And this is where you encountered this… individual?”

The 2B unit paused, then shook her head.

“No. I didn’t see her. I just… knew her.”

Her hands clenched around her skirt. When she said no more White stepped forward and knelt before her.

“C-commander?”

She placed a hand on the unit’s cheek, brushing her thumb over her visor.

“Go on. It’s alright.”

She nodded, her mouth trying to form words a few times before finally settling.

“I knew, in that moment, that I needed to protect this girl. It was as powerful as my directive to serve humanity, perhaps moreso.”

White closed her eyes, querying a few very old databases. “Is this girl human?”

“I… I think so.”

“What does she look like?”

“I have never seen-”

“But you know, don’t you?”

She paused again, sighing out the excess heat her thoughts were generating. She gasped when White removed her visor, hands reaching up to stop her instinctively. White looked her in the eyes, still cupping her face.

She did not have to ask, this time.

“Young, small and slight. Her hair is white and her eyes are pale. She is frail and delicate and… and I must protect her. It is my duty. I swore-”

“Enough,” White said softly.

The unit stopped, visibly relaxing when White broke their gaze.

“Is she on the moon, Commander? Are the humans there able to contact us in this way?”

White smiled, stroking her cheek. “The humans there are safe. They know that we will do anything to protect them, and they live happily with that knowledge.”

The 2B unit smothered a small smile at that, her baked-in software designed to induce pleasure at that knowledge.

“Then… the girl? Where is she? Is she safe?”

“Oh, 2B…” White pushed her hair back from her face and smiled. “There is no such person.”

“Commander-”

“At least, not any longer. When your personality software was developed, it contained a great deal of junk data, mostly memories and self-destructive tendencies… pointless things, really. We tried to remove them all, but the nature of personality is resistant to these measures.”

She blinked, looked away. “She…”

“A phantom, a known glitch in your model. Nothing more.”

The 2B shook her head, brow furrowed. “But I… I need to protect her…”

“Your prototypes were developed a long time ago, 2B. If she ever existed, she would be long-dead now. Humans are so transient. Any obligation you had, you are released from, and you have a greater duty.”

The unit kept shaking her head, her entire body beginning to tremble. “No, no she _is_ my duty. I promised.”

White took her face in her hands, holding her there until the unit met her eyes. 

“Glory to mankind.”

The 2B paused, slowly stilling as her overclocking wound down.

“Glory to mankind.”

White nodded and kissed her softly. “Good. Now, go and receive your orders. There is always more to be done.”

“Yes,” she said, all business as she replaced her visor. “Glory to mankind,” she repeated quietly to herself as she rose.

White watched her pick her way around the debris, towards the elevator, speaking softly to herself all the while.

“2B?” White called as she reached the doors and called the lift.

She turned. “Commander?”

The doors opened, and the 2B’s chest ruptured in a beautiful red blossom.

She gasped, staring down at the sword that had run through her, reaching up as if to grasp it. It was torn out of her with a thick wet sound, and she fell to her knees, hands still hovering over the wound. She looked up at White, and though her visor masked her expression White had seen it often enough to know. She stared back, cancelling her remorse processes as the android slouched forward, limp.

The 2E unit stepped out of the lift, turning the body over with her foot and examining it carefully. When she was satisfied she turned to White and saluted.

“Mission accomplished, Commander.”

White nodded. “Excellent work.”

The 2E unit showed no signs of appreciating the praise, but then this had always been a stoic model. “Glory to mankind,” she said.

“Glory to mankind,” White repeated, wiping a drop of bright red coolant from her cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> Now that I am back to writing I have a lot to catch up on! Most of it grim. But at least with Nier it's canon-typical grimness.


End file.
